April 19, 1920
Comrade Lunacharsky
and
to the Small Soviet of People's Commissars

Sculptor S. Merkurov finds it profoundly unjust and improper that the cancellation of the commission given to him by the Council of People's Commissars (December 30, 1919) took place

(1) without a personal summons,

(2) without written notification to him and without presentation to him of a copy of the Council of People's Commissars resolution canceling the commission.

Therefore, Merkurov insists that by April 15, 1920 (the deadline established by the Council of People's Commissars resolution of February 23, 1920 for Aleshin and his collective), Merkurov be granted the right to present once more a new project.199

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

First published in 1945

in Lenin Miscellany XXXV

Printed from the manuscript